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Quidam: 190.000 * $38.85/3-months * 4 = $29.526.000. Not too shabby as I would guestimate that most accounts pay by the month and few pay by read more

Merus: Economists definitely have something to add to the game design process - the very things that earn it the nickname as the 'dismal science', assuming read more

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You may recall that Icelandic space MMO EVE Online appointed an official in-world economist, Dr. Eyjo Gudmundsson, a few months back - here's his first post on their official site, promising he'll monitor inflation and trading and "...publish economic information to the EVE-Online community."

Well, earlier last week, Dr. Eyjo duly published his first in-world analysis, and it's stacked with the kind of complex graphs and charts that would make a lot of MMO developers/geeks drool. One notable thing upfront is that current subscription numbers for EVE are revealed: "EVE Online's population has increased by 0.9% per week since launch, currently residing at 190.000 paid subscriptions and nearly 40.000 active trial accounts which are disregarded from these economic studies."

The conclusion mentions that there will be an economic newsletter, the first of a quarterly series, published before Fanfest 2007 in November, and also reveals surprisingly real world-esque trends: "Overall trade quantity and volume has increased dramatically over the last 3 years and the price of minerals has fallen considerably due to increased mining efficiency through better tactics and improved technology. The price formation has also improved showing that price difference between regions is becoming minimal in Empire space and reflects only the time value of moving minerals in low sec. However, smaller population and the risk of piracy in zero-zero space results in less efficient markets with low volumes and great fluctuations in prices given an arbitrage trade opportunity for the brave entrepreneur." [Via Clickable Culture.]

2 Comments

Economists definitely have something to add to the game design process - the very things that earn it the nickname as the 'dismal science', assuming rational agents and treating everything as a resource, makes them ideal for working out how players are going to react, as they do tend to act amorally and min-max.